Not only is the y2k deadline subject to change, but the double-secret private meaning of the waffle-word is subject to further revealing definitions as Hoff so aptly demonstrated in his explanation of how the FAA has deceived us with statements of accomplishment, which, when examined in the light of the private FAA definitions, are meaningless.

In the spirit of Yourdon-forum wordsmithing, I'd like to see what the forum can come up with as a more meaningful and accurate word for "deadline." If I recall, Online2Much came up with "ClubFed" as the best name for government confinement shelters. Can he/she reprise his/her role?

I'll kick things off with "deadlie". I also had another, but I forgot it. I'll post it when I remember.

Answers

Since I consider me living in a world quite different from the average
I have had to ammend my language, spoken and print often to accomodate
my world-view with what exists. A new lexicon if you will. I have
resorted as others in past times have with the standards,...Hyphenated
words...i.e., media-Y2K-deadline, government-Y2K-deadline,...or using
the ever-popular "so-called",...i.e., so-called deadline, so-called
government,...you can always go with the asterisk and footnote to
define your terms. Or you can just use quotation marks to clue the
reader that you question the definition...I hear what you are saying.
I refuse to accept inaccurate usage of words, period...language
influences thought, read anything about the study of semantics for
further details.

Off the top of this noggin I suggest Spin-Deadline, or so-called
deadline, or the ever-popular "deadline".

... They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the
scraps. William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost

You could always go to Orwell, (1984),and look what he has to
say on the Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith and his job,...the
manipulation of language. Really, I think this is so important.
Daily, nightly I hear the bastardization of language on the news,
radio and television. Define "collateral damage"...and how is it
related to the collateral you put up to get a loan, how on Earth has
it been connected with "oops, we killed you civilians", and why do
people accept this? Much semantic slipperiness afoot. Who gets to
coin words and phrases. I am waiting for my Oxford English Dictionary
so I can see who coins what...particularly irksome is when the
newsreader says: "ATM Machine". I have to call the Department
of Redundancy Department. Caramba. No wonder few people can think
critically...the language is so obfuscated as to become meaningless.

For most of my adult life I have used "timeline" instead of
"deadline" to get away from the negative connotations of the latter.
I would think that in the y2k circumstance "timeline" is truly
appropriate in more ways than one!

I would suggest refining your "Spin-Deadline" to something more
"spinnish" as in "Spin-Lyin" which could be used to denote not only
the DEAD line but also the SPIN line although that may further
compute the issue at hand (or perhaps that should be issue at foot
and mouth).

I'd like to hear from some genuine IT people about this, as opposed
to the panicked peanut gallery.

From what I've read, when a new system is being developed, the
deadline is the date that system must be implemented. But y2k fixes
aren't new systems, they're lots of little bits and pieces. These
pieces are unit tested, system tested, and returned to production
steadily, rather than all at once. An organization undergoing
remediation has pieces in most phases - coding, unit testing, system
testing, intersystem testing, time machine testing, IV&V evaluation,
you name it.

When I'm given a piece of a larger system to work on, my 'deadline'
is the time beyond which some project management chart says I will
become the critical path if I'm not done by then. The y2k critical
path for complete systems (and inter-systems) is well known.

I don't fully understand the call for compliance announcements here.
You can't honestly announce compliance until you've completed
testing, and you can't ever complete testing -- there's always one
more test of something, and always will be. As more pieces are
finished, testing is taking place on a wider scale. This is a good
sign.

And really, how could someone like GM announce that they had met
their deadline for complete compliance, given all of their suppliers?

Targetdate, proposed date, due date would work. In an administration
where a quota is a goal, is does not mean is and a lie is not an
untruth, any label would work. A cleaner way would be the work will
be done ASAP and then there is no deadline to miss and scare folks or
bring out the spin doctors to try to explain why that date was not
important after all. The only use of these dates is as a trigger
date for more announcements that everything is fixed. I just figured
out what is happening. When the deadline date is announced, the PR
spin is written at the same time and released automatically when the
date rolls around. The only problem is when the mission is not yet
accomplished but this is close enough for government work.

I humbly suggest that all compliance deadlines from September 1999
forward be referred to as "doomlines." If you cross that line without
being compliant, we're doomed.

I love that word. People reading my posts must have no idea of how
cheerful I am about the whole topic lately, even though the words seem
just the opposite. I think my sense of humor is just expanding to
fill the need.

Flint, you know,..since we're talking about word usage, you'd go along
way to getting your point across if you'd use less semantically
weighted words than,.."panicked peanut gallery". Could you define
that lovely weighted phrase please.

You all would be surprised how many english-speaking human beings are
ignorant about connotation, word-weight, propaganda, semantics...it is
most, or many, people. Flint's above phrase "panicked peanut gallery
would score high for aggression, put-down, superiority, etc. And I'm
mostly sure he didn't mean it that way...

If you own the words you can rule the world. Go back to Orwell,...go
back farther.

"From what I've read, when a new system is being developed, the deadline is the date that system must be implemented. But y2k fixes aren't new systems, they're lots of little bits and pieces. These pieces are unit tested, system tested, and returned to production steadily, rather than all at once. An organization undergoing remediation has pieces in most phases - coding, unit testing, system testing, intersystem testing, time machine testing, IV&V evaluation, you name it. "

Flint, now I have been out of the DP loop for quite some time, but even I can remember those mile long PERT charts. Are you suggesting that NO ONE keeps some kind of overall Project Chart for the COMPLETION of the FAA y2k work? If so we are in DEEPER DO DO's than I suspected.

In this context, the "panicked peanut gallery" are those who don't do
program maintenance, don't face programming/engineering deadlines,
cheerlead the pessimists, attack the optimists, exaggerate (often
misrepresent) the bad news, reject all the good news, and make no
further contribution. And we do have such people, quite a few of them.

As for deadlines, I don't see how we can come up with a suitable term
if we don't understand the process to which this term is being
applied. It's a messy process. If your goal was to have 100% of your
applications ready for system testing by X date, and when that date
came, 90% of your code was well past testing, back into production,
and engaged in inter-organization testing, but 10% wasn't ready to
system test yet, did you "miss your deadline"? 90% of your code BEAT
your deadline. So how do you call it?

A deadline is a a date which must be met. The word is derived from a
line which a prisoner could not cross. If he crossed it, he'd be
shot.,,, double-secret private meaning of the waffle-word is subject
to further revealing definitions

Unless you're using Earned Value, you simply state that you're 90%
complete and give the new (slipped) ECD for the remaining modules.
Given the "game of silly schedules" that apparently has been played in
so many Y2K projects, that would be a lovely problem to have.

Dudes! Awesome wordsmithing! All the responses are so good that I
can't call a clear favorite as there was in the "ClubFed" situation.
I will say that Vapordate seems to fit with and extend the canon of
information literature.

I should have at least come up with "deadlyin'" as the spinlyin'
contributor did.

As in: "Ladies and gentlemen. If you will please look, here on the
scheduling chart. The next spinpoint on our Y2K effort will be June
30, 1999. When we reach that point on the calender, please be ready
to accept our new verson of official spin concerning our Y2K
progress."